This weekend is Halloween so I put together a list of movies to help get you in the “spirit” of things
*Poltergeist *Alien/Aliens *Cloverfield *The Excorcist *28 Days/Weeks Later *Dawn of The Dead (latest remake) *Van Helsing (I know most people hate this one, but if features lots of monsters and kick ass action)
During the 12th century in the holy city of Jerusalem, a young peasant blacksmith (Orlando Bloom) takes up the mantle of knighthood so he can help repel the army of Christian crusaders that took control of the city in the year 1099. Eva Green, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons and David Thewlis co-star in director Ridley Scott‘s original cut of the film, which boasts added footage and extensive bonus features.
My Opinion:This one I rented from Netflix over a month ago and was sitting in my room waiting to be watched. I had seen this movie a couple of years ago and remembered it fondly, but when I decided to finally watch it I couldn’t get past the first hour before turning it off in boredom, could just be I wasn’t in the mood, but sent it back without watching the rest. If you never seen it before and like long movies with battles you have to wait for check it out. Rental only in my opinion.
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Games:
Fable 3 (Xbox-360) out this week
Description from half.com
The fables of Fable continue to be told with this third series entry — a revolution for the series that gives you power over your character and environment like never before.
Special Features
Be the hero and forge your own destiny. Storytelling comes to life as Fable III puts you and your hero in the center of an epic journey that traces your rise from revolutionary to ruler and beyond, along with all the action, drama and humor. Interacting with the world of Albion has never been easier or more rewarding. The Expressions system offers an ingenious new Dynamic Touch feature that allows your hero to reach out and embrace a loved one, or exact retribution against those who have betrayed you. Your hero, your faithful canine companion and even your weapons now also evolve to extremes mirroring your morality and personal style of combat. The emotional connections players will develop in the world of Fable III will lead to some of the most memorable moments ever experienced in a game.
Where blockbuster action meets adventure. Your journey spans from the streets of a thriving and industrialized Albion to the surrounding battlefields. The pioneering one-button combat system allows players to easily combine different styles in their arsenal – hand-to-hand melee attacks, long-range precision shooting and wickedly catastrophic spells – to advance the one-button combat mechanic to a full scale, thrilling level that offers infinite ways to engage, experiment and compete.
Choice and consequence. A core tenet of the Fable franchise, players are presented with infinite choices and consequences that impact the world around them. Good or evil, loved or loathed, career versus family, or just you and your faithful canine companion – live the life you have always dreamed. More so than ever before, your choices lead to far more profound outcomes that impact your every being. Whether it’s deciding the outcome of minor squabbles or changing the direction of the entire kingdom, these key decisions will change the world forever.Warnings
Blood, Language, Sexual Content, Use of Alcohol, Violence
Email me at Gamesmoviesandmore1@gmail.com and if you have Xbox Live friend me up Gamertag BrianAtGMM I’ll play some Halo Reach or Battlefield Bad Company 2 with you.
The game that led me to re-buy an Xbox 360 has been out for a couple of days at this point, and I’ve put in a decent amount of hours on it, so what do I think so far? Well to be fair this review pertains mostly to the online component of the game as I have only played about an hour and a half of the campaign mode, but that is not unusual for me when it comes to first person shooters as I prefer the competition of online multi-player, and so most of this review will be based on that.
One of the coolest new features is armor abilities which replace the one time use abilities of the pick up items in prior games. These new abilities include jetpacks(need I say more), sprinting, a shield dome protecting those inside from outside fire, and a hologram you can send out to distract other players, and more. These abilities can be used as much as you want as long as you allow them the short time to recharge. The online in this game has more possible game modes than I have probably ever seen in a game. Some of the modes that I can remember off the top of my head are Slayer which is your typical death match where the first person or team to reach the number of kills needed wins the match, you have a few different variations of capture the flag which involves storming the other teams base to take their flag and carry it back to your base. One of my favorite modes which I believe is new to the series is headhunters, in this game type every time someone is killed they leave behind a skull, and you have to collect as many of these skulls as possible and bring them back to a designated place which keeps moving around in order to score points. Another new mode introduced is called Invasion in which you must either take over or defend points from being taken over, and at the end of the round you switch sides to do the opposite, whoever takes over the most points during these rounds ends up winning the match.
Firefight mode which was released in last years ODST has been revamped including the ability to find others online to play with in matchmaking, which was one of the things I complained about in ODST where you were only able to play with those on your friends list. The forge mode from Halo 3 has been reintroduced in a grander scale with lots of customization, I have tried tweaking with it a bit even building myself a castle with towers which was pretty cool, however I have a hard time figuring out how to add objective based items but that’s just my stupidity when it comes to map editing. The game advertises that you can play through the campaign with people you don’t know through the matchmaking system, but this option is nowhere to be found when I look for it, so for now I have to just play with friends if we ever manage to all be on at the same time.
There is a lot of meat to sink your teeth into when it comes the multiplayer, but how does it all stack up? When I played with my brother for a few matches and a few of his friends we got our butts handed to us but I was actually enjoying it. However when I play matches with random folks I feel really alone, and it seems as though most people do their own thing and don’t believe in team work leading to many losses which when compared to a game like Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the total opposite with its squad based play. Another complaint I have about the multi-player system is the matchmaking feature which hasn’t been updated since Halo 2. Call of Duty has this part done right, you pick the type of match you want to play and it hooks you up with others that want to play the same type, where as in this game you pick certain aspects but don’t really get to pick the exact type so you never know what you’re going to end up playing though you can choose to vote it seems that most people are never on the same page when it comes to this as well.
In the end this game can be so much fun when playing with those you know or when you get matched up with people willing to communicate and work together, but most of the time you end up in lone wolf situations and I can’t help feeling like I should just go play Battlefield Bad Company 2 or wait to play this when friends are all online which makes a big difference. I do like the improvements to Firefight, and the armor abilities teach an old dog new tricks and help make old game modes seem new again, but in the end this is the same Halo we’ve been playing for almost a decade, for better or for worse.
Side Note: You will find that most matches you play there will be at least one or two people on either team who quit early into the match, and this game does not allow them to be replaced which can lead to an unfair advantage in a lot of matches. In most games in this genre if someone quits the game will fill the spots in with new players.
Here is a video showing off Multiplayer with Bugie’s designers
The latest game in the Halo Series “Halo Reach” is finally out and most stores had midnight launches to celebrate Bungies last game in the series. I myself bought a pre-order at my local Gamestop and was told they would be opening at midnight but I should get there around 10:00pm, I thought to myself “yeah right, I’ll get there around 12 and just sit in the car until the line dies down a bit. So I ended up actually getting there around 11:30pm and noticed there was a line but it wasn’t too long, as we got closer to midnight though the crowd multiplied like rabbits with nothing better to do, and I decided to get out of my car. By this time it was too late for me there were probably over a hundred people on the line and it wasn’t moving in any hurry. Still I stood in my spot for about twenty minutes until I heard one of the Gamestop employees come outside and call out numbers, it seems that before getting on-line you were supposed to wade through the crowd into the store and pick up a number then go back outside and wait for it to be called. My time spent in my car and then on the line was all for nothing so at about 12:45 I decided to just call it quits and go home, it’s not like I would have been able to play the game anyway as I would be disturbing those I live with, still it would have been nice to have.
In the past I had gotten the prior Halo games at the midnight launches and would call out sick from work the next day, however after last years Halo ODST I was a bit let down and figured it wasn’t worth losing a sick day and abandoning my co-worker(maybe I’m finally maturing a bit, nah) for this one. However all the reviews out there for this game seem to very positive and I am buying into the hype and am eager to get home from work and play today. So I still have my pre-order receipt on me and will stop by Gamestop after work which is only a few minutes out-of-the-way from home, and if all goes well I’ll be playing by about 5pm.
A little bit of background on Halo Reach: This game is actually a prequel in the series and takes place in the year 2552. The Halo series of games are first person shooters that take place in a science fiction universe where humanity is at war with an alien race known as the Covenant. In prior Halo games you take control of the super soldier known as the Master Chief, however in this game you control a lesser powerful but still bad ass soldier who belongs to a squad known as Noble 6. This is also the first Halo game where you can choose the gender of your character. If you read the books or follow the Halo lore you know that the battle for the world of Reach ends very badly, but from what I’m hearing it’s one hell of a ride getting there. As this is the last Halo game being developed by Bungie they’ve gone all out, the graphics have been revamped, and the multiplayer which has always been the series strong point has taken all of the best from the past and amped it up including a much more customizable map maker known as Forge World. All in all I’m very excited and can’t wait to play it and will probably have plenty to talk about on the next podcast.
Here is a video someone posted on youtube showing an example of what the lines looked like
This week I talk about the movie Machete, and The Invention of Lying. In games I talk about getting new Xbox, Gears of War 2, Mass Effect 2, Borderlands, plus news stories as well. You can email your comments or if you want to share your opinions on any games or movies to gamesmoviesandmore1@gmail.com as always thanks for listening.
Here is the link to where you can find the latest podcast on talkshoe, or here on Itunes.
Games Movies and More 